Uninominal vote

The uninominal means that the citizens vote for individual candidates, not for the political party as they used to. In the last system, candidates were elected by proportional representation from lists made by the political parties. A candidate for the Deputy seat has to rally 70.000 votes to his name and a Senator 160.000 in order to be elected. The introduction of the new electoral system created controversy.
On 25th November 2007, on the same day as the first European elections in Romania, President Traian Basescu organized a referendum on the issue. 81.36% of the Romanians who voted agreed with the new system, 16.17% were against it, but the electoral turn out was very low- only 26.51%- and the referendum was invalidated. Traian Basescu changed his mind and promote the uninominal vote. It was inaugurated in the Romanian system with the general and senatorial elections of 30th November this year.

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